7. Exploding seed pods<\/p>\n
\u201cThe invariable mark of wisdom,\u201d wrote American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson back in the 1830s, \u201cis to see the miraculous in the common.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Of all his many qualities, perhaps it is Sir David\u2019s ability to find wonder and joy in every corner of the world that makes him such an inspirational broadcaster. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor several weeks now, pressure has been building up inside the pods,\u201d explains Sir David, wielding a stick in the direction of a crop of Ecballium with gentle menace. \u201cNow they\u2019re as taut as a well-pumped up bicycle tyre. All they need is just a slight nudge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cue what can only be described as a dignified assault upon a bed of squirting cucumbers, followed by what can only be described as utter glee at the resulting explosions. \u00a0<\/p>\n
If Sir David has taught us anything, it\u2019s that an exploding seed pod is, in its own way, as magnificent as a Siberian tiger. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7. Exploding seed pods \u201cThe invariable mark of wisdom,\u201d wrote American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson back in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[18,19,17,133,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-477026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116547240912439570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}